Improving the Perception Students with Learning Disabilities have of Students with Mental Retardation through Peer Tutoring

A quasi-experimental design was used to test two hypotheses : that peer tutoring would alter the perception that students with learning disabilities held of students with mental retardation and that the peer tutoring program would improve the spelling scores of both the tutors and the tutees . Two classes of 17 students with learning disabilities and students with mental retardation served as the participants. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to calculate the significance of the program. The analysis of the results showed a trend towards improvement in perception that the tutors held of students with mental retardation, but because a chi analysis revealed that the tutors and nontutors pre-­ test scores were not equal no conclusions could be made. The peer tutoring program produced significant results in improving the spelling scores of the tutees. There was also a increase in the tutors spelling, but it was not significant